Christy Clark's deputy chief of staff resigns over ethnic voters memo

Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun03.03.2013

Premier Christy Clark says she's launched an internal investigation to confirm that no taxpayer dollars were improperly spent as part of a confidential BC Liberal multicultural strategy circulated last year by her own deputy chief of staff.NICK PROCAYLO
/ PNG

BC Premier Christy Clark meets the public as over 200,000 people participate in the 12th annual Surrey Vaisakhi Parade, billed as the largest outside of India, in Surrey, BC., April 21, 2012. Clark says she's launched an internal investigation to confirm that no taxpayer dollars were improperly spent as part of a confidential BC Liberal multicultural strategy circulated last year by her own deputy chief of staff.NICK PROCAYLO
/ PNG

“Today, I accepted the resignation of Kim Haakstad,” Clark said in a brief written statement.

“Kim reached her decision after much consideration of her roles and responsibilities,” she added. “Consistent with circumstances of resignations, no severance payment applies.”

Haakstad has been at Clark’s side for more than a decade, working as her executive assistant, and then ministerial assistant, during Clark’s early days in provincial politics.

Haakstad became executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees during Clark’s political hiatus, but returned as a key figure in Clark’s failed run for the Non-Partisan Association mayoral nomination in Vancouver, and again during Clark’s successful bid for the B.C. Liberal leadership.

Haakstad’s resignation was announced four hours after the government released details about the conduct of an internal investigation launched by Clark on Thursday.

The investigation, to be conducted by four senior civil servants, promises to determine whether taxpayer dollars have been misappropriated, or whether anyone in Clark’s government had breached the Public Service Act.

Some in Clark’s cabinet were not convinced Friday’s moves would be enough, saying before the news of Haakstad’s resignation that they expected Clark to take “appropriate action.”

“My colleagues and I are certainly looking for an explanation about the announcement regarding the investigation,” Minister of Social Development Moira Stilwell told The Vancouver Sun early Friday afternoon.

“You can see the situation breaks into two separate issues. One is that staff clearly contemplated doing things that weren’t just wrong but were offensive and inappropriate and potentially illegal,” she said.

“That doesn’t require an investigation. That requires action.”

She said that in addition to immediate disciplinary action, she supports a thorough investigation to root out systemic issues that allowed the memo to be created and circulated.

Stilwell said she believes Clark had been let down by her staff, and appeared to signal that the caucus and cabinet was watching Clark’s moves as closely as was the Opposition and the public.

“She (Clark) is above this and I think she needs to take action to make sure people see that,” said Stilwell.

Other B.C. Liberal MLAs made similar calls for accountability early Friday afternoon.

“What I personally think, and what most British Columbians think, is that (the people) who have done this should be dismissed,” said MLA Dave Hayer.

“First of all you can’t cross the line between government funding and political parties — we have always been clear that government and the party should stay away (from each other) — and also we should not be involved in trying to have quick wins to get some votes.”

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day in Prince George on Friday, Clark gave no signal of the coming resignation, or that she was poised to take any immediate actions.

“Things happen in politics. People make mistakes and they make bad judgment calls and clearly that’s happened at the staff level,” said Clark, when asked point blank if Haakstad should be fired for her role in distributing the document.

“We sure do want to get to the bottom of it because everyone in the public service needs to know you cannot mix public money and partisan purposes. It didn’t happen in this case, but somebody way down the chain apparently thought that it could, and that was wrong.”

Made public by the New Democratic Party during question period on Wednesday, the memo in question laid out a detailed and blunt strategy for how the B.C. Liberal government could use its taxpayer-funded resources to help the B.C. Liberal Party win over ethnic voters during the coming election.

On Friday evening, NDP house leader John Horgan said Haakstad’s resignation displays “an acknowledgment that this is a serious problem.

“I’ve been trying to hear some contrition from the premier to this point in time, and I’ve yet to hear it,” he added.

“Certainly Ms. Haakstad has been at the epicentre of this and her resignation is a demonstration of the seriousness of the issue.”

Horgan added he is concerned the terms of reference for the coming investigation released Friday did not include a reference to announcements such as that by Clark that B.C. will host the Times of India Film Awards.

“I didn’t see any direct reference to the Bollywood awards show,” he said.

“If it was a result of the multicultural strategy then I think the public should know about that. That’s certainly my hunch and that doesn’t seem to be captured in the scope.”

Meanwhile, in Richmond Friday, the political damage done by the leaked memo was making itself known as members of the Chinese community slammed the government for displaying “callousness and disrespect.”

Bill Chu, president of a group called Canadians for Reconciliation Society, predicted the surfacing of the memo will have “serious implications” in the coming B.C. election.

He was accompanied by lawyer and longtime activist Tommy Tao; Hanson Lau, who ran a Chinese radio program for 25 years and now operates a travel agency in Richmond; and Thekla Lit, co-chair of the Canada Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia.

Lit has been quoted in news reports as being a supporter of Gabriel Yiu, NDP candidate in Vancouver-Fraserview.

Chu and Lau have been billed as “special guests” to at least one of Yiu’s fundraisers.

The group — which on Friday said it was non-partisan — took particular issue with an apology on the Chinese head tax the B.C. Liberals have said could come as early as next week.

“An apology without sincerity is not just empty words but it is also an insult to the victims,” said Lit.

Lit said an apology can only be meaningful if it is accompanied by historical research, an acknowledgment of history, consultation with all concerned parties, preservation of historical sites, community education and a recording of historical injustice in school curricula.

Chu added that in past, the B.C. Liberal government has confused the Chinese head tax, which is a federal matter that has already been redressed, with past B.C. government policies and laws discriminating against the Chinese community. These have not been addressed.

“I wonder if the Liberal government know what they are apologizing for,” said Lit.

“It wasn’t Ontario, it wasn’t Newfoundland, it wasn’t Nova Scotia, it wasn’t all the other provinces that discriminated badly against us,” said Chu.

“It was B.C. without a doubt. It’s very important for us in B.C. to realize that.”

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